


kissing you is like hitting for the fences

by driedupwishes



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Baseball, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 06:10:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5732275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driedupwishes/pseuds/driedupwishes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren’s having a hard time pitching anything but walks, and the crowd’s jeering isn’t helping. He needs a distraction, a moral boost, and Levi thinks he has just the thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	kissing you is like hitting for the fences

If there was one thing Levi couldn’t stand about baseball, it was a crowd in a mood.

“Oh _come on_ ,” someone yelled from the stands. Levi clenched his jaw and ground his teeth, hand stinging as he pressed off his toes and rose to his full height. The batter rocked back out of the way, kicking up red dirt and chalk, and his lip was curled into a smirk that made Levi wish he could take a swing at _him_. Fucking _prick_ wasn’t making this any easier than the crowd was.

“Jesus _Christ_ , Eren,” Jean snapped. For a half a second Levi considered throwing the ball at him instead of the pitcher’s mound, watching Eren flinch and growl on the rise of red dirt as he twisted to glare at Jean on first. Levi should have been in more of a rush to get the ball to the mound, to keep runners from stealing, but this fucking team was eating up Eren’s rage and the two runners on second and first were making a show of how they were lounging around without a care in the world.

At least Eren wasn’t rising to the bait, Levi thought, twisting to toss the ball to Eren. He was watching the runners, watching the team, watching their fucking useless coach pace the length of their dugout again and again, but even with his attention spread so thin – as it always was when he was in his gear – most of his attention was still on Eren.

Eren, who caught the ball with robotic motions, his glove snapping shut around the baseball in a motion that Levi knew well. Eren, who was gorgeous even on the edges of a rage, skin dark and golden in the sun, sweat glistening in the light, the knees of his pants red with dirt and his hat crooked, just a little, from his agitation.

“ _Three balls, no strikes,”_ the umpire shouted, shifting in the dirt somewhere behind Levi. He’d said that already and Levi could see Eren stiffen at the reminder. Levi shifted, still standing over the plate, staring at Eren because his chest ached to see Eren this way.

“Here he comes, just a-walkin’ down the line,” the batter sung quietly. Levi twitched, the voice kicking him into action, and he whirled on the heel of his cleats to return to his spot just behind home plate. He dropped down into a crouch, the backs of his thighs catching on the cushions from his leg gear. He rocked between his heels and his toes, adjusting the glove on his left hand with his right as Eren smacked the ball from his hand into his own glove, scowling so that his eyebrows furrowed under the brim of his cap.

The batter stepped back into his place, taking his stance in the back end of the batter’s box and pressing into Levi’s personal space. Levi didn’t flinch, didn’t move; he knew this song and dance about intimidating the other team and he wasn’t bothered. This fucking prick wouldn’t clock him with the bat, because he was a little whiny brat who needed to be walked to base or he’d never seen any running time.

But Levi forgot all about the little prick hoisting his bat over his shoulder, because Eren looked up from his glove, eyebrows still bent, and glittering green eyes caught Levi’s in their grasp. Levi’s heart leapt in his throat and for a moment, even the cat calling and noise from the impatient crowd fell away. He couldn’t feel the heat of the sun, he couldn’t feel the way his throat was dry with heat, he couldn’t feel how his helmet pressed in on his sweaty hair or the way his sweaty skin prickled with dirt and sand. All he could feel was Eren’s gaze, burning into him, until he itched with the need to move, to _do something_ , the same way his pitcher did.

“ _Get on with it already_ ,” someone from the opposing team yelled in the visitor’s dugout. “ _We all know you’re going to walk him anyway_.”

Eren yanked his gaze away from Levi, snapped to look at whoever had spoken, and Levi knew he had lost him. The connection had been broken and in a rush of anger Eren planted his feet on the rubber, wound up too fast, and _pitched_.

Levi lunged, popping up and diving to the right as Eren’s pitch went wildly out of control, knocking his helmet from his head with his arm as he did so. The crowd went crazy, people out of their seats in the stands and yelling even before Levi smacked into the ground, barely kept upright by his knee as his glove smacked closed around the ball. The noise of everything almost but not quite drowned out the call from the umpire, who shouted _ball four, take a walk!_ in a tone of voice that almost sounded piteous. Even their own team was shouting, groaning as the players on second and first started to stroll to the next base, and Levi felt a surge behind his chest-plate, ribs squeezing around his lungs as Eren’s face crumbled on the mound.

The look on Eren’s face was just too much and Levi couldn’t bear it anymore; he found himself shoving to his feet in a rush. The other team started taunting, shouting about a pitching switch, like _that_ was going to happen on Levi’s fucking watch, and with a growl he threw the ball back to Eren, snapping it with more force than he meant and watching Eren catch it with a numb feeling in his chest. Then he turned to the umpire behind him, his left hand rolling to remove the sting of Eren’s pitch from his palm.

“Time,” he asked tersely. He tried not to sound so rude, because timeouts didn’t have to be given, but the umpire seemed to pity them. He nodded, shouting across the field that there was a timeout in affect as the three players from the other team settled on the bags, bases loaded. The upcoming batter approached the plate anyway, likely to practice his swing in an attempt to further harass the pitcher. Levi wanted to kick his legs out from under him as he stormed toward the mound, but didn’t.

Eren’s face twitched, different emotions ghosting over his face as Levi drew close. He wrenched off his glove as anger painted his cheeks red, tossing it on the ground with the ball tucked inside, his hand curling briefly into a fist before falling limp a second later. Shame was next, spreading the red to his neck, and he ducked his head, eyes on the ground.

“Sorry,” Eren muttered, lips pulled tight over his teeth as Levi stepped up onto the mound. “I’m losing my cool, I know, I just-“

Levi didn’t fucking care that the stands were full of people, that all eyes were on them. Nothing mattered but Eren and that’s why Levi pressed forward, reaching out to press his right hand over Eren’s heart. He felt Eren jerk under his touch, head picking up, and as Eren’s gaze snapped to his Levi caught Eren’s lips with his own, rocking forward on his toes to compensate for their height difference.

Eren made a soft sound against Levi’s mouth, a sound that echoed in Levi’s head louder than any of the crowd’s cheering or jeering. He pressed into the kiss, angling his nose against Levi’s in such a way that their lips slotted together in perfection. Levi slid his hand up Eren’s chest, feeling the drag of Eren’s jersey under his palm as his fingertips pressed against the base of Eren’s throat. In response Eren’s hand came up, his warm fingers curling around Levi’s forearm in a steady, easy way that made Levi’s heart swell with a rush of affection.

“ _Boys, for the love of God,”_ their coach yelled loudly from the dugout. Levi curled his fingers in Eren’s shirt and Eren hooked his fingers into the loop on Levi’s pants in retaliation, Eren opening his mouth for a second before Levi finally had to drop back on his heels and their kiss was broken. Eren leaned down, to keep the contact, nuzzling at Levi’s cheeks sweetly.

“You’ve got this,” Levi whispered, the words falling from his lips to catch on Eren’s as he leant forward again. Eren’s eyes met his, unfocused since they were so close, and Levi looked back, hoping Eren could see that, right down to his core, Levi believed in him.

“I’ve got this,” Eren repeated quietly. His heart beat steady beneath Levi’s hand, his thumb dragging along Levi’s skin in an absent-minded way. Levi felt his lips pull up, curling into a grin right back at Eren as he finally leant back and parted for now.

Levi reached up, straightening Eren’s cap from its crooked tilt. Eren’s laughter rang, powerful and loud and light across the field, and his eyes were gentle in the sunlight shining down.

“Strike him out,” Levi told him, voice dropping, into something that might have been a purr in a different setting. Eren’s eyes darkened a little bit, his cheeks going faintly red again as Levi stepped back.

“Will you reward me if I do,” Eren asked, voice just as low, but louder, to reach Levi as he backed off the mound. Now his cheeks were the ones hot and red, a tingle running down his spine, and his lungs expanded and collapsed in a rush.

“ _Maybe_ ,” he answered, even though they both knew that win or lose, Levi’s lips would be back to meet Eren’s. In victory or in consolation, they would come together again, Levi and his pitcher, Eren and his catcher. Eren’s eyes twinkled as he ducked down, picking his glove and the ball from the ground. That was when Levi finally twisted, his grin pulling so widely at his cheeks that it stung a little as he too returned to his place.

Bases loaded and a batter behind the plate, but as Levi retrieved his facemask and glove from the red dirt behind the plate there was no drop of worry in him. Eren would strike this batter out, easy and quick, he thought, tucking the mask over his head but keeping it propped on his forehead as he slid his hand in his glove. He dropped into a crouch, settling in as the batter stepped up, and when he looked at Eren, Eren was already looking at him.

 _I love you_ , Levi mouthed slowly. Eren’s shoulders dropped and he stepped up to the rubbed, his own glove on and his cap still square on his head.

 _I love you too_ , Eren mouthed back, just as slow and sure. And then, with a curl of his lips as the umpire called for the game to continue, Eren pitched the ball.

**Author's Note:**

> I played. 6? years of softball and was a junior umpire for baseball at one point with my dad as the big adult umpire. I know all together too much useless information about baseball. and when I saw [this](http://ererichi.tumblr.com/post/136425168781/baseball-au-trost-districts-baseball-club) picture by [ererichi](http://ererichi.tumblr.com) on tumblr I just about died; I _had_ to write it. so! I did lmao.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this! I sure had a blast writing it c:


End file.
